Book publisher for art education.

A book publishing for art education or Anatomy For Sculptors, Understanding the Human Figure and Anatomy of Facial Expression, a content of anatomical illustrations and renderings of human form and anatomy.

High Hopes

At the beginning of the 1990s, on the ruins of the USSR, in the newly formed Latvian nation, a young person, named Uldis Zarins, full of ideals and hopes, dreamed of becoming a sculptor. In 1994, he was accepted to the Art College of Riga. Studies were difficult and competition was fierce, but they resulted in satisfaction. Every day he replicated famous classical Greek portraits, busts, and figures with clay. The outlook prevailed, that frequent replication of antique sculptures would facilitate the understanding of form creation.

After only half a year, Uldis understood that eyes, of course, adapt, and hands become more agile; however, understanding of the form did not materialize.

The Cheek of Amazon

One day, when replicating the head of Amazon portrait of famous sculptor Polykleitos, he ran into a problem: How to construct a cheek? It was clear that the form was not just a sphere, but several complicated forms combined. He thought: “It would be great to understand what these forms are and how they go together!”

Teachers only discouraged, saying: “Study, research, measure!” – But what to measure, when there aren’t even any corners, nor facets!? A teacher answered: “Study anatomy, maybe you’ll get by somehow.”

First Anatomy Studies

A modeling teacher told Uldis: “If you want to understand everything, here is a human skull and anatomy book. Study and create an écorché for us!” Uldis decided to create a bust with shoulders. All of its muscles were in place, however, the sculpture looked bad. The main thing was that his understanding of the form had not increased one bit! In the place of the form, he had studied muscles.

In digging through a mountain of anatomy books, Uldis realized that they were all meant for painters and drawers. He found that all of these books were equally boring, with scant, chaotic drawings. “No one, it turns out, has thought about sculptors!” Uldis found only one anatomy book, which only slightly touched on the form -- Gottﬁed Bammes’ Der nackte Mensch. Then he asked himself the question: “Why are there so few pictures in the books and so much text!”

Academy Studies

After college, Uldis enrolled in the Art Academy of Latvia (Latvijas Makslas Akademija). There, same as in college, emphasis was placed on exercises, not on the understanding of how to create the form. Each time Uldis created a new sculpture, he made preparations, not only to arrange the armature and clay, but also drew a small paper sketch where he could analyze the form in an understandable way.

Over the course of several years, drawings, sketches, anatomy books and successful photographs were accrued. Uldis began to notice, that the sketches he had created, as well as images, were in high demand among colleagues. He often heard the suggestion that he should collect them all and publish a book, which would be a composite of form analysis, as well as fundamental information about anatomy that sculptors would need to know. This was how Uldis came up with the idea for the creation of the book.

Kickstarter

Years went by and Uldis created the website anatomy4sculptors.com, a proportion calculator, and Facebook page, where he publishes anatomy reference images and his drawings. On the Facebook page, Uldis engaged in conversations and tested the ways of explaining the human anatomy.

In the spring of 2013, with the help of friend Sandis Kondrats, a Kickstarter campaign was organized, creating an international team, with whose help Uldis realized his dream of publishing the book, Anatomy for Sculptors.

During the project development phase, Sandis and Uldis were joined by friends from Latvia, Sabina Grams and Edgars Vegners, who contributed with their expertise in Graphic Design and Photography.

With much help from Sandis' brother Janis Kondrats, we were able to create a unique subscription system on the website to engage and test the books content with the project supporters.

As English is a second language for Uldis and Sandis, the assistance of editors and proofreaders, Monika Hanley and Johannah Larsen, was indispensable. Friendships, created through the project with Chris Rawlinson and Sergio Alessandro Servillo, filled in the blanks with 3D scans and sculpt reference materials. The Shutterstock service, which supplied Uldis with a lot of great artwork to build on the book's content, was also a great help. Thanks to the friends of the international sand sculpting community, with whom Uldis and Sandis had conversations about the book during their travels over the course of the year, which was a great help in the book's development process.

The support of the Seattle Latvian community was very special while working on the project. Also, without the support and understanding of the families and friends of Uldis and Sandis, this project would not have been possible.

Finally, the book came into physical form 2014 Summer after hard and passionate work over the course of 20 years, since Uldis came up with the dream of creating such a book. It took him 11 years of classical art studies, over 200 international sculpting festivals, symposiums and exhibitions in 9 years and the past 4 years spent on reading books, researching human anatomy, and illustrations for this book to come to life.

Software for clinical medical training

A military medical training software to enhance personnel training and readiness.

With the help of a simulator using special glasses, the doctor goes to the reception center of the virtual military medical center, where decisions about the treatment of the victims have to be made, based on the ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) accredited by the USA.

During the simulation, the virtual victim reacts according to the manipulations made, and his or her state of health can improve and worsen, for example, if the bleeding is not stopped. Thus, the simulator's artificial intelligence evaluates the ability of a physician.